“The Name of This Star Is ‘Wormwood’”: Study of the Traditional Culture of the People Living in the Territory Affected by the Chernobyl Breakdown and
„Името на тази звезда е „Пелин“: Изучаване на традиционната култура на жителите на пострадалата от Чернобилската авария територия и на преселниците

Summary/Abstract: The comparison of the Chernobyl breakdown with the “Wormwood” star (“polyn’” in Russian) of the Apocalypse, one of the portents of the end of times, has become a permanent attribute of the deliberations about the Chernobyl tragedy and its consequences. One thing is beyond any doubt: this event has really marked the end of the specific and unique “wormwood” world, becoming a powerful factor for its transformation. After the Chernobyl disaster, a spacious region took shape in the territory of the Ukraine, referred to as a “Chernobyl Zone”. It has essentially covered the Central and Western Polesie with individual areas of other regions, included. As a result of the catastrophe, the residents of scores of villages were resettled in other places, safer for living. An entire ethnic and linguistic complex, historically shaped in the course of centuries, was practically confronted by the real threat of being wiped out forever from the face of the Earth. Coming to the fore in these conditions was the task of not only accomplishing the psychological rehabilitation and the adaptation of the residents of that region to the new living conditions, but also of preserving the historical memory and traditional culture of the region affected. These problems were new for folklore and ethnography scholars. Their interpretation has called for the formation of new approaches, which would secure the complete fixation of the disappearing ethno-cultural complex in the conditions of destruction of its environment of natural functioning. The specific conditions of work in the extreme conditions of the zone of radioactive contamination have brought to life numerous original methods and practices, securing the scientific information value of the collected materials, their detailed identification, registration, selection, and deactivation; as well as methods for preservation and the accomplishment of a number of other tasks. As a whole, the materials of the expeditions have been highly informative: they are unique in themselves, but in comparison with the materials of earlier expeditions in the region as well as the numerous fixations from the 19th and the 20th century, they make up a special reference base of data about the traditional culture of the region.

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